The Capital
Wing of the APS is the Central East Coast wing
of the Airmens Preservation Society. Although centered around the
states of Virginia, Maryland, Eastern Pennsylvania and Delaware, some of
our members also travel from much further afield. Formed in 1985,
the WWII Airmen's Preservation Society has grown from a small group of
dedicated individuals in the Pittsburgh area to six chapters ("wings")
stretching from New England to the Mississippi River. Members, both
male and female, range in age from young adult to WWII
veteran.

At
airshows or military history events, the Society sets up a complete US
Army Air Corps encampment of the type common with tactical (mobile) air
units of the European or Pacific Theaters of combat in WWII. The
visitor will find historically authentic mess facilities, operations tent,
mission briefing tent, communications facilities, living quarters,
medical/Red Cross facilities, weather station, and even an operational
darkroom. Society members "staff" the various locations in WWII
period uniforms and strive to re-enact the daily lives of the men and
women who lived and fought in these same settings during the war,
including re-creating the aircrew mission briefings - using actual
Air Force Historical Archives data for the mission
details.

The motto of the group is "To Honor, Preserve, and Remember". Our primary goal is to HONOR those men and women who
gave of themselves during the war. Had it not been for their
sacrifices, we wouldn't be able to enjoy the freedoms that we do today,
and will for generations to come. Our second goal is to PRESERVE both the memorabilia of
the WWII era and the memories of those who lived it. Besides being
avid collectors of the uniforms and equipment of the WWII airmen, our
members attempt to learn all they can from the veterans about their
experiences during the war. We then display the memorabilia, and
strive to pass on what we have learned from the veterans to those viewing
the displays. Our third and final goal is to REMEMBER. It is said that
history repeats itself. The reason it does so is that mankind tends
to forget the unpleasant lessons it learns. We must not allow the
lessons learned in 1939-1945 to be
forgotten.